FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

SOMERS, Wis. (Mar. 31, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside baseball team opens its home slate on Friday with a non-league showdown against in-state rival Northland College before hitting the road and facing Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division rival Saint Joseph's College in a four-game weekend set.
 
The Rangers and Lumberjacks hit the diamond at 11 a.m. on Friday for a single game at Carthage College's Augie Schmidt Field while UW-Parkside and Saint Joseph's open their weekend series on Saturday at noon with a twinbill at Gil Hodges Field in Rensselaer, Indiana. The Rangers and Pumas cap off the series on Sunday with another doubleheader with first pitch slated for 12 p.m. Live stats will be available for all five games while a live video feed will be offered for Friday's opener.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (3-15, 0-4 GLVC) dropped its opening GLVC series of the season last weekend, with host Lewis University sweeping all four games. The Rangers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the opening game on Saturday but a 10-run fourth inning by Lewis ultimately did in the Green and White in a 17-2 setback. The Flyers opened a 4-1 lead in game two after three innings of action and never looked back in the 8-6 decision. On Sunday, Lewis emerged with the sweep after claiming 3-1 and 9-6 wins.
 
Kyohei Makita is the Rangers leading hitter with a .375 batting average with a team-best 21 base hits and 12 runs scored. Zach Thompson is hitting at a .345 clip with nine stolen bases while Jake Kolasinski owns a .327 average with four doubles and nine RBIs along with a team-best .452 on-base percentage. Nick Janssen is the fourth Ranger hitting .300 or above, owning a .300 average with five RBIs.
 
On the mound, Tyler Jandron leads the team in earned run average (2.59), innings pitched (24 1/3) and strikeouts (31) in two starts and six relief appearances. Nate Stolte sports a 5.01 ERA with 16 strikeouts while Josh Serio has tallied 26 punchouts in his six appearances while 2014 GLVC Freshman of the Year Mario Samuel logging 18 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings of work.
 
About the Lumberjacks: Division III Northland (5-7) heads into tonight's clash with North Park University having dropped four of its last five games. The Lumberjacks fell 6-5 to Blackburn College last Saturday, yielding four runs to the Beavers in the fifth inning before rebounding with a 9-5 win in the nightcap.
 
Prior to the Blackburn split, Northland had taken lumps against Elmhurst College (7-2), Milwaukee School of Engineering (12-2), and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (15-5).
 
45 of the Jacks 89 runs this season came at the expense of Anna Maria College, piling on the runs in a 26-9 ad 19-7 doubleheader sweep on Mar. 10 to close out the squad's Florida trip.
 
Alex Loberger boasts a team-best .382 batting average while Alex Elliott is hitting at a .357 clip with a team-high 14 RBIs. Jake Morris has the best earned run average on the pitching staff among player's with at least 10 innings pitched, owning a 6.55 ERA with 10 strikeouts. Carson Ferry has gone the distance in all three starts this season, collecting a team-leading 24 strikeouts.
 
About the Pumas: Saint Joseph's (12-13, 1-3 GLVC) heads into its home opener at Gil Hodges Field having split its last two doubleheaders. The Pumas were swept 8-3 and 3-1 by the University of Indianapolis on Mar. 25 to open the GLVC slate before salvaging a split the following day, notching a 4-3 decision in game one before succumbing 6-4 in the series finale.
 
SJC was back on the diamond on Tuesday afternoon, downing Wayne State University 3-1 in the opener before getting shellacked 13-1 in the nightcap.
 
Three Pumas are hitting above .300 with Joshua Handzik leading the way with a .370 average with 10 extra base hits and 16 RBIs. Ryan Keck is hitting at a .350 clip with Brendan Rivera owning a .314 average with 12 extra base hits and 17 RBIs. Garrett O'Neill paces the team in both home runs (seven) and RBIs (26).
 
Zachary Aring owns a 2.16 earned run average on the hill with a team-best 29 strikeouts. Quinn Snarskis is the workhorse with four complete games and a team-high 39 innings pitched, logging 26 strikeouts during his time on the mound.
 
Tour de Kenosha: UW-Parkside is no stranger to the artificial turf of Augie Schmidt Field having logged eight games at the home of the Carthage College Red Men over the past two seasons. In fact, of the 27 home games played in 2014 and 2015, only 17 were contested on campus at Oberbruner Field with eight at Carthage (including six last season) along with a pair of contests at Simmons Field, home of the Northwoods League's Kenosha Kingfish.
 
Streaks: Jake Kolasinski opened the season with a base hit in eight consecutive games, including four multi-hit games. On the year, Kolasinski has reaching base safely in all but three contests in 2016. Kyohei Makita enjoys the longest active hitting streak, now at five games while the Tokyo, Japan, native also leads the squad in multiple hit games with seven on the season. Kolasinski and Zach Thompson both have six multi-hit contests to their names.
 
GLVC Reshuffle: 2016 will have a slightly different look to GLVC play with interdivisional games eliminated from the league calendar. Teams will now play seven four-game sets against the rest of their division with the top four teams from each division meeting for the GLVC Tournament from May 12th to 15th in Westview, Indiana. 
 
Out of the (North)Woods: Last summer four Rangers appeared in the Northwoods League, one of the top collegiate summer leagues in the nation. Josh Serio was a league All-Star playing for the eventual champion Kenosha Kingfish while fellow pitcher Mario Samuel also spent time with the local squad. Tyler Jandron spent some time with the Wausau-based Wisconsin Woodchucks with Jake Kolasinski opening the season with the Lakeshore Chinooks based out of Mequon, Wisconsin. For 2016, Serio resigned with the defending champion Kingfish.
 
Coos Bay Connection: Head Coach Daniel Esposito spent four seasons as the head coach at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay and his stint with the Lakers continues to pay dividends with three student-athletes and one assistant coach having spent time with the SWOCC baseball program. Montana natives Riley Phillips and Cody Rolshoven along with Tokyo native Kyohei Makita all spent time with SWOCC prior to donning the Green and White along with assistant coach Gonzalo Gonzalez Jr. who was a player under Esposito at both SWOCC and Pittsburg State University in Kansas.